Pages

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Hello Everyone and welcometo my post in the Under Rose Tainted Skies blog tour - one of which I am very excited to be part of. As you can see from my review last week that I absolutely adored it and I would really urge all of you to read too. Plus Louise is such a bright and fiery personality which you can really see in her writing. Believe me it isn't just the bright hair - which I love. But before I share with you my guest post from the lovely Louise, here is a little more about the book.

For her, the outside is sky glimpsed through glass, or a gauntlet to run between home and car. But a chance encounter on the doorstep changes everything: Luke, her new neighbour. Norah is determined to be the girl she thinks Luke deserves: a ‘normal’ girl, her skies unfiltered by the lens of mental illness. Instead, her love and bravery opens a window to unexpected truths …

An important and uplifting debut from a British author, which tackles mental health issues such as agoraphobia and OCD.

Guest Post by Louise -

Your Writing Playlist

Hey guys! I’m so excited to share my playlist with you. Heads up, it's kind of all over the place. And I capped it at 10 songs because otherwise we’d be here until Christmas, the year after next. Music is one of my most favourite things, and never fails to inspire.

So, you were forewarned that my writing playlist is a little bonkers. I think I listened to everything while I was writing Under Rose Tainted Skies. But here are a few that I wore out:

1. Lightweight by Demi Lovato.
2. This Isn't Everything You Are by Snow Patrol.
3. Human by Christina Perri.
4. We Might Be Dead By Tomorrow by Soko.
5. Suggestions by Orelia Has Orchestra.
6. Kiss Me by Ed Sheeran.
7. She’s In Love with You by Suzi Quatro.
8. We found Love (acoustic) by Boyce Avenue.
9. Let Her Go by Passenger.
10. Static Mind by Girl in a Coma.

About Louise Gornall

My name is Louise, and I write YA books. Sometimes contemp, sometimes horror, sometimes thriller. My debut YA contemp, Under Rose-Tainted Skies, will be published by HMH/Clarion (US), andChicken House/Scholastic (UK) in the fall 2016/17.

Under Rose-Tainted Skies is about this chick, Norah, who suffers from agoraphobia, OCD and depression. Her life is one long blur of cheese sandwiches and trash tv, until she meets the new boy next door, Luke, and he starts to challenge her way of thinking.

For her, the outside is sky glimpsed through glass, or a gauntlet to run between home and car. But a chance encounter on the doorstep changes everything: Luke, her new neighbour. Norah is determined to be the girl she thinks Luke deserves: a ‘normal’ girl, her skies unfiltered by the lens of mental illness. Instead, her love and bravery opens a window to unexpected truths …
An important and uplifting debut from a British author, which tackles mental health issues such as agoraphobia and OCD.

My Review

Under the Rose Tainted Skies is just another novel that I absolutely adored. Lately these are all the books that I want to read that I need to read. It's just their originality, Louise heartfelt and passionate storytelling that makes you want to cuddle this book all the time. When I first saw this book even in it's proof copy form (Thank you Nina), it was Holly Bourne's quote on the book that can make you tell just how great this book will be and their really was no disappointment at all.

Norah is the heart in the birdcage, all she wants to do is fly free, fly from the nest. But she can't, it's not that she doesn't want to but her body just shuts her down at the fear and the thought of stepping outside of the door. Especially when next door neighbour Luke, encounters on the step stirring a whole new complicated situation for her. That and her mum away for a week, this really isn't the best time to get to know a boy when Norah is in a new level of awkwardness and uncomfortableness.

I loved Norah, she inspiring to say the least. If I'm honest when I've been ill for a week or injured being in the house for that long is suffocating so I can't imagine that having a fear and panic of going outside can just lock your body and rule your life. It's that fear that just makes the Norah so brave that it's hard to justify just really what it's like.

Being herself, being Norah is what she wants desperately to be but with Luke she feels at her most uncomfortable because she doesn't want to be judged. But Luke didn't judge her, he was understanding to say the least and at times it was sometimes awkward situation for them both because they didn't know how to be around each other without weirding themselves out. At times it was quite funny especially when Norah was searching the wrong things about kissing. Haha. (In the nicest possible way of course) Luke didn't want her to go through this alone, but the relationship aspect of it was beautiful and special in a way. Luke saw her as her, Norah was trying to be acceptable of that which is a HUGE step for her.

Under Rose Tainted Skies is a raw and emotional depiction of mental health. Lousie Gornall is a wonderful an poetic writer that really highlights today's society and reality that people are not the same and shouldn't be treated the same either. Louise is such a bright and fiery personality which you can really see in her writing. Believe me it isn't just the bright hair - which I love.

Rating - 5

Don't forget - next Tuesday is my guest post from the lovely Lousie Gornall herself so don't forget to stop by for that!

Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Hello Everyone, Yes you heard it... I have an exciting cover reveal of Katie McGarry's latest novel in her Thunder Road series. One of my favourites from her in comparison to the Pushing the Limits series. I really can't wait to read this though how can I wait till January 2017!!!! So cruel this post is, so cruel. Anyways I'm digressing, here is the cover you've been waiting for and a little bit more about the book as well....

Seventeen-year-old Violet has always been expected to sit back and let the boys do all the saving.

It’s the code her father, a member of the Reign of Terror motorcycle club, raised her to live by. Yet when her dad is killed carrying out Terror business, Violet knows it’s up to her to do the saving. To protect herself, and her vulnerable younger brother, she needs to cut all ties with the club—including Chevy, the boy she’s known and loved her whole life.

But when a rival club comes after Violet, exposing old secrets and making new threats, she’s forced to question what she thought she knew about her father, the Reign of Terror, and what she thinks she wants. Which means re-evaluating everything: love, family, friends . . . and forgiveness.
Caught in the crosshairs between loyalty and freedom, Violet must decide whether old friends can be trusted—and if she’s strong enough to be the one person to save them all.

About the Author

Katie McGarry was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.

Katie is the author of full length YA novels, PUSHING THE LIMITS, DARE YOU TO, CRASH INTO YOU, TAKE ME ON, BREAKING THE RULES, and NOWHERE BUT HERE and the e-novellas, CROSSING THE LINE and RED AT NIGHT. Her debut YA novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS was a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction, a RT Magazine's 2012 Reviewer's Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel, a double Rita Finalist, and a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Teen Pick. DARE YOU TO was also a Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and won RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award for Young Adult Contemporary fiction in 2013.

Saturday, July 02, 2016

Hello Everyone Hope you are all having a great weekend. Today I'm very excited to be part of The Witch's Kiss blog tour hosted by HarperCollins. I am currently reading the book and absolutely loving it, what I love so far is that it's set in present day. Anyway's I'm digressing Katherine and Elizabeth are here with their top 5 witches it literature and if you don't know or haven't heard of this book here is a little more about the novel.

Sixteeen-year-old Meredith is fed-up with her feuding family and feeling invisible at school – not to mention the witch magic that shoots out of her fingernails when she’s stressed. Then sweet, sensitive Jack comes into her life and she falls for him hard. The only problem is that he is periodically possessed by a destructive centuries-old curse. Meredith has lost her heart, but will she also lose her life? Or in true fairytale tradition, can true love’s kiss save the day?

Our Top 5 Witches in Literature

Well, this is a difficult one. There are so many awesome
witches (good and bad) in fiction to choose from. But we’ve had a go….

1. Granny Weatherwax
from The Disc World Series, by Terry Pratchett

‘Her expression wasn’t perhaps as vicious as thumbscrews, but it did
suggest thumbscrews were a real possibility.’

It’s very hard
not to love Granny Weatherwax. She’s undoubtedly powerful (she never loses a fight), but not in a
flashy, Maleficent kind of way. Yes, she dresses in black (‘cos it’s respectable’)
and will fly a broomstick if she absolutely has to, but she’s not really one
for wands or cauldrons. Or even, for that matter, spells. Instead, Granny’s particular
brand of magic very much comes from the heart and, more often than not, from
the head. Frequently, it involves out-thinking or just plain out-manoeuvring
her opponents by any means possible (bluffing, tricking and lots of insinuating
that very bad things may be just
about to happen). Although she’s a ‘good’ witch, with a strong sense of morality,
a lot of her power over others stems from the mean-old-lady persona she cultivates.
She has a withering stare that could melt the sun, and she’s not afraid to use
it.

2. Hermione Granger
from Harry Potter, by J K Rowling.

“Are you sure that’s a real spell?” said the girl. “Well, it’s not very
good, is it?’

Hermione is a
very modern, teenage witch, as well as something of a feminist icon. She’s
confident, ambitious and unapologetically smart. Sure, she’s a know-it-all. But
let’s face it, usually she does know
it all (particularly in comparison with the oh-so-clueless Ron, and often even Harry).
Hermione works hard to excel at witchcraft and excel she does. And she never
dumbs herself down in order to fit in with anyone, or to appease the men (or boys)
in her life. Harry’s the ‘chosen one’, who ultimately defeats Voldemort, but
Hermione’s the one with all the sass. Without her, we very much doubt Harry
would have made it out of his first year at Hogwarts in one piece. We’re
absolutely sure Ron wouldn’t have.

3. Bellatrix Lestrange,
also from Harry Potter

‘Neville Longbottom is it? How’s your mum and dad?’

Like Lord
Byron, Bellatrix is ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know.’ A pure-blood witch,
former Death Eater and fanatical follower of Voldemort, she out-performs the
Wicked Witch of the West on the wicked scale 10-1. Vicious, sadistic and quite obviously unhinged,
she merrily tortures and kills her way through the Harry Potter series. We have
a couple of really nasty magical types in The
Witch’s Kiss, and Bellatrix very much appeals to our darker side as
writers. She literally puts the dark into ‘Dark Arts’.

4. Mildred Hubble from
The Worst Witch, by Jill Murphy

‘The cat is supposed to be on the
broomstick, Mildred,’ said Miss Hardbroom wearily.

If we were
to choose who to emulate, we’d like
to be Hermione. We both suspect we’d be more like Mildred. But that’s okay.
Mildred is not quite as proficient a witch as Hermione; she actually screws up a
lot. But she’s young and vulnerable, and readers can identify with that. She also
has an incredibly big heart, and, one way or another, she eventually manages to
achieve her goal.

5. Meg from Meg and Mog, by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pieńkowski

‘She got out of bed to dress for the spell party.’

When we were
growing up we adored the Meg and Mog series. Meg is the archetypal witch. She’s
got a black hat, black boots, black cat, broomstick and a cauldron. What’s not
to love?

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend. Be sure to pick this book up on your travels to bookshops and/or libraries or I will put a spell on you!! Haha.Happy ReadingEmma

Hi I'm Emma and I'm a 20- something year old bookworm. A Secondary School Librarian by day, introducing young readers to the wonder of the literary world. A Reader/blogger by night, reading my favourites including Holly Bourne, J.K. Rowling, Richelle Mead, Sarah J.Maas, Veronica Roth, the list in endless. Also discovering new authors everyday. I'm also a Costa Addict, fellow Spinster and a romantic too!

Please do read the ramblings of all the books I discover in my little corner of the internet. Feel free to say hi to me on Twitter and Instagram too below.

Grab my Button

Copyright

All materials on this blog were produced and/or compiled by Never Judge a Book by its Cover. No images, text and/or designs from this site may be copied or reproduced without written permission. *Authors and publishers may use parts of reviews for quotations.*